Everything about Shambhala totally explained
» For other uses, see Shambhala (disambiguation).
In
Tibetan Buddhist tradition,
Shambhala (also spelled
Shambala or
Shamballa) is a
mythical
kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the
Himalayas. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the
Kalachakra Tantra and the ancient texts of the
Zhang Zhung culture which pre-dated Tibetan Buddhism in western
Tibet. The
Bön scriptures speak of a closely-related land called Olmolungring.
In the Buddhist Kalachakra teachings
Shambhala (
Tib.
bde 'byung) is a
Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness".
Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have taught the
Kalachakra tantra on request of King
Suchandra of Shambhala; the teachings are also said to be preserved there. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened, actually a Buddhist "
Pure Land", centered by a capital city called
Kalapa. An alternative view associates Shambhala with the real empire of
Sriwijaya where Buddhist master
Atisha studied under
Dharmakirti from whom he received the Kalachakra initiation.
Shambhala is ruled over by a line of
Kings of Shambhala known as
Kulika or
Kalki Kings (Tib.
Rigden), a monarch who upholds the integrity of the
Kalachakra tantra. The Kalachakra prophesizes that when the world declines into war and greed, and all is lost, the twenty-fifth Kalki king will emerge from Shambhala with a huge army to vanquish "Dark Forces" and usher in a worldwide
Golden Age. Using calculations from the Kalachakra Tantra, scholars such as Alex Berzin (see his
website
) put this date at 2424 AD.
Rigdan Tagpa or Manjushrí Kírti is said to have been born in 159 BCE and ruled over a kingdom of 300,510 followers of the
Mlechha (
Yavana or "western") religion, some of whom worshiped the sun. He is said to have expelled all the heretics from his dominions but later, after hearing their petitions, allowed them to return. For their benefit, and the benefit of all living beings, he explained the Kalachakra teachings. In 59 BCE he abdicated his throne to his son, Puṇdaŕika, and died soon afterwards, entering the Sambhoga-káya of Buddhahood.
As with many concepts in the Kalachakra Tantra, the idea of Shambhala is said to have an "outer," "inner,' and "alternative" meaning. The outer meaning understands Shambhala to exist as a physical place, although only individuals with the appropriate
karma can reach it and experience it as such. As His Holiness the 14th
Dalai Lama noted during the 1985 Kalachakra initiation in Bodhgaya, Shambhala isn't an ordinary country:
» Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to go there through their karmic connection, nevertheless it isn't a physical place that we can actually find. We can only say that it's a pure land, a pure land in the human realm. And unless one has the merit and the actual karmic association, one can't actually arrive there.
There are various ideas about where this society is located, but it's often placed in central Asia, north or west of Tibet. Ancient
Zhang Zhung texts identify Shambhala with the
Sutlej Valley in
Himachal Pradesh.
Mongolians identify Shambala with certain valleys of southern
Siberia.
The inner and alternative meanings refer to more subtle understandings of what Shambhala represents in terms of one's own body and mind (inner), and the meditation practice (alternative). These two types of symbolic explanations are generally passed on orally from teacher to student.
Serious modern scholarship has now thrown new light on the Kingdom of Shambhala as depicted in the Kalachakra Tantra, such as that of Helmut Hoffman, that says clearly that "The first masters of the tradition disguised themselves with pseudonyms, so the Indian oral traditions recorded by the Tibetans contain a mass of contradictions." The historical chronologies thus also are contradictory and imprecise.
Chögyam Trungpa
Although
Chögyam Trungpa, founder of
Shambhala International, came out of the
Tibetan Buddhist tradition, in his teachings Shambhala Vision has its own independent basis in human wisdom that doesn't belong to East or West or any one culture or religion . Shambhala
kingdom is seen as
enlightened society that people of all faiths can aspire to and actually realize. The path to this is provocatively described as the practice of
warriorship — meeting fear and transcending aggression, and of
secular sacredness — joining the wisdom of the past and one's own culture with the present in nowness.
Trungpa's Shambhala teachings have inspired numerous educational, artistic, and spiritual institutions, including
Naropa University,
Shambhala Training,
Shambhala Sun,
Miksang photography,
The Shambhala School,
Shambhala Institute,
Shambhala Buddhism,
Shambhala Prison Community,
Peacemaker Institute, and many others.
Western fascination
The Western fascination with Shambhala has often been based upon fragmented accounts of the Kalachakra tradition, or outright fabrications. Tibet was largely closed to outsiders until very recently, and so what information was available about the tradition of Shambhala was haphazard at best.
The first information that reached western civilization about Shambhala came from the
Portuguese Catholic missionaries João
Cabral and
Estêvão Cacella who had heard about Shambala (which they transcribed as "Xembala"), and thought it was another name for
Cathay or China. In 1627 they headed to
Tashilhunpo, the seat of the
Panchen Lama and, discovering their mistake, returned to India.
The Hungarian scholar Sàndor Körösi Csoma, writing in 1833, provided the first geographic account of "a fabulous country in the north...situated between 45' and 50' north latitude".
During the 19th century,
Theosophical Society founder
HP Blavatsky alluded to the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western
occult enthusiasts. Later
esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity.
The mystic Nicholas Roerich and the Soviet agent Yakov Blumkin led two Tibetan expeditions to discover Shambhala, in 1926 and 1928. Apparently inspired by Theosophical lore, Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess sent German expeditions to Tibet in 1930, 1934-35, and 1938-39. .
The myths of Shambhala were part of the inspiration for the story of Shangri-La told in the popular novel Lost Horizon published in 1933, possibly influenced by the accounts of Nicholas Roerich published under the title Shambhala three years earlier.Western esoteric traditions
Madame Blavatsky, who claimed to be in contact with a Great White Lodge of Himalayan Adepts, mentions Shambhala in several places without giving it especially great emphasis. (The Mahatmas, we're told, are also active around Shigatse and Luxor.) Blavatsky's Shambhala, like the headquarters of the Great White Lodge, is a physical location on our earth, albeit one which can only be penetrated by a worthy aspirant.
Later esoteric writers like Alice Bailey (the Arcane School) and the Agni Yoga of Nicholas and Helena Roerich do emphasize Shambhala. Bailey transformed it into a kind of extradimensional or spiritual reality on the etheric plane, a gigantic castle in which the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, is said to dwell. The Roerichs see its existence as both spiritual and physical.
Related "hidden land" speculations surrounding the underground kingdom of Agartha led some early twentieth-century occultists (especially those associated with Nazi or Neo-Nazi occultism, for example Nazi mysticism) to view Shambhala as a source of negative manipulation by an evil (or amoral) conspiracy. Nevertheless, the predominant theme is one of light and hope, as evidenced by James Redfield's and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's respective books by that name.
Further Information
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